Find the Best Cloud Job for Your Personality Type
Are you starting your cloud computing career? Do you want to make sure that you select the right career path to prepare for? Then you want to make sure you pick the right cloud job for your personality. Below, we’re going to show you what to do to reach your dream cloud career.
Finding the Cloud Job That best Suits You
Today, we’re discussing how do you find the right job for your personality. Oftentimes, our subscribers ask, “How do I find something that suits me?” When we work with new cloud architects or those that have had 1-3 years of experience and multiple jobs, we understand why because we’ve been there ourselves, so we’re going to help find the right job for you.
Here, we’re going to discuss finding the job for your personality, finding an organization’s culture that matches your desires, finding the right manager, then geographic things and whether they’re an effect on your career potential.
What’s the first step?
The first thing to do is to know yourself. Sun Tzu’s book “The Art of War” says “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” The point is, the more you know about yourself and the more you know about the company, the better and more successful you’re going to be.
Examine yourself. Are you a highly motivated person that likes to be rewarded for the things you do? Do you like to work alone? Do you like to go to the office? Do you like to work from home? Do you like to work in teams? Do you like to be involved in lots of meetings? All these things about you are going to tell you what you need to know. These kinds of questions help you to better understand your personality type.
Now lets take a look at some of the key things to consider when evaluating the best job fit for you.
Type of Organization for Your Cloud Job
Structured
If you are the type that enjoys a structured environment with lots of people, meetings, and processes where everyone is treated the same, seek a global organization and you will thrive. Large global organizations implement policies and practices that create a systematic approach to almost every level and detail of activity in the operations of the company. If you like to have all the information to complete an assignment or like to be given exact parameters and expectations; then large organizations are most likely a good fit for you.
Startup
If you’re the creative type that enjoys recognition and rewards for getting things done, seek an entrepreneurial company. Startups tend to be really good for highly motivated self-starter types. In a startup you get to be an authority on many tasks and projects because they don’t have the same support as large organizations. Because of this you’re constantly learning.
Whatever you see or do will have a direct relationship with either the company’s product development or operations. If the company’s doing well, they will financially reward and promote you very rapidly. Comparatively, start-ups are terrible for someone that needs structure. Why? Because in a small environment, you can’t expect a large pool of team members that will support you on projects or provide editorial support when writing white papers, for example.
If you want that structure, again, it’s going to be that big company environment. However, if you’re looking to go be yourself, contribute greatly to something, be paid for and recognized for it; you’re going to be better off in a startup environment.
There are some huge, highly entrepreneurial organizations around. These organizations really reward people for doing well. They promote them, they pay more, give stock options, and bigger bonuses based upon contributions. However, those types of entrepreneurial companies tend to have no structure.
Here’s an example
I worked for a large entrepreneurial company for many, many years and it was one of the biggest and best global technologies in the world; here’s what happened. At the beginning of the fiscal year, I would meet with my manager and he’d say, “These are my five goals for you this year.” and “These are the things that I needed to get done this quarter.”
I said, “Anything by a specific date?” He’d say, “End of the quarter or the end of the year.”
I’d say, “Anything specific that you need me to know about?” He said, “You’re an adult, go figure it out, deliver excellence. I need the customers to say good things, I need it to be a product that helps this organization, I need it to be a product that helps the customers. How you get that done does not matter to me, here’s what I need from you. Let’s sync up once a week so I know how you’re doing, and I can help you with anything that you need. If you get stuck along the way and you need my executive authority to go find additional resources for you, call me and I’ll make it happen.”
Other than that, it was like it was my own business. You know what? I thrived in that environment, went through multiple promotions in that environment, but that was good for me. But if you’re the type of person that needs to be told what to do, how to do it, why to do it, and the way to do it, then this is not the environment for you. With that can come some extremely good quality. Find a big company, find something structured suited for your personality.
Small environments
Now, when it comes to projects. In a small environment, it’s going to be very nimble. You’re going to find yourself able to design and test things and do much more than you can in a big environment. When you have 100,000 or 200,000 employees in a company and a network that’s supporting you, you won’t do a lot of experimentation. This is just not the nature of most large scale organizations.
Decide which is best for you
Regardless of the organization’s culture, are you going to be a cog in a wheel? Basically, one part of a giant team, doing things. You do your job, you stay inside your window and you do well. That’s great if you like that. Or is it going to be the entrepreneurial environment where you are given a task and expected to “Just get it done.” If that’s you — thrive in the environment. Neither of these is wrong.
With process comes quality, but it also stifles creativity. If you’re a creative person, go to a place with less process. If you are a non-creative person, but meticulous attention to detail, find an organization with process. If you’re like me and you’re hard with attention to detail and you really focus on it, but you still need freedom, find something where you’re going to be more entrepreneurial.
Managerial Compatibility and Your Cloud Job
The next phase which is going to determine your success in an organization is the CEO, as well as your management structure, and their views and goals. These are the people that are going to have the biggest impact on your life. Do you like your manager? Are you philosophically compatible with your manager? Does your manager agree with the way you want to do things? Is the manager a micromanager, In which case you like that, that’s great. If the manager’s a micromanager and you don’t like that, and you want more creativity and you want more freedom, then that’s going to be a horrible job for you.
What if your manager’s good, but their manager’s manager is not. Or they’re still very good, but they’re not good for your personality type? Well, your manager can retire or get promoted, or your manager could get laid off and your manager’s manager could be your manager. So, you need to really know those two steps before you act.
Location, Location, Location
Geography matters. Where is the organization located and is your location going to affect your career potential? I previously worked for one of the largest tech companies in the world. It would have been much more advantageous for my career if I had moved to Silicon Valley where the organization was located. Many of the positions that I would have liked to have taken were exclusively there. However, I did not move there, and I still had a phenomenal position and was very happy.
I was much happier living in South Florida where I could go to the beach at will than living near Silicon Valley. Realize in certain cases that where you live may affect your organization’s potential. For example, if you’re working in another country that’s headquartered in the US, you might not get the kind of visibility that’s necessary that you would if you were living where the organization was located.
If you’re in an environment where you’re closer to the executives and managers and you’re doing great work, you’ll get more visibility. If you’re looking to join one organization and spend the rest of your career there, chances are you need an environment that’s closer to the leadership to have long-term career potential.
Takeaways
We recommend you consider at least the above covered items to find the right job for your career. Know yourself, know the organization, and find an organization that matches your personality type, goals, and dreams. If you do that, you’ll be very happy and have a long and successful career.
Cloud Architect Career Development Program
We’ll send you a nice letter once per week. No spam.
